Company culture has always been seen as advantageous and an asset with companies – recent years have seen many larger ones investing significantly in their working environments and employee culture. With big tech companies such as google and facebook boasting award winning culture (according to Glassdoor), smaller companies are working hard to keep up to try and attract top talent with new inventive ‘culture’ boosters.

Its not uncommon to come across an office with a table-tennis table, a football table and a couple of bean bags – Oakstone has all of these, but do they actually contribute much to your company?

No matter how hard you work at improving it with material items it’s the people inside your business who lead and create the culture – Their work ethic, their relationships and their attitude all contribute to this so your culture should really start with recruitment. Hiring the best people for your business will ensure a successful company culture (not the amount of available bean bags or free coffee). Adding fun with ping pong and football tables in the office can only enhance employee relationships – it doesn’t make them.

It isn’t everything

When you are trying to attract talent, culture is a major contributor, however is this damaging your company?

Presumably you want people to work for your company who are passionate about what you do. They should want to grow with your company and look forward to contributing to your growth – not turn up everyday for the catered lunch or office ping pong.

Perks do matter in attracting great talent but to create great culture means finding the best passionate talent available, who are there because of what you do and how you do it, not what you offer. Make sure the interview process is thorough and the candidates are the right fit for your company so you can ensure they are motivated to grow with you.

Motivated and engaged people result in healthy, successful and growing businesses.